Design
Cubby House – Fail
What do you think of this Cubby House that someone built in their garden, soon after moving in? Well it looks pretty good…………………………. Solidly constructed building, nice colourful paint job, and securely bolted down to a convenient concrete slab. So why…
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Tips for Setting up a Home Office
Sponsored Post When you are drawing up plans for a new house, you may want to think about including a home office. The number of telecommuters and home business owners is on the rise, with the advances in technology that…
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Manhole
When I started in the drainage business 40 years ago we called them Manholes. Since then due to political correctness we have had; Person Holes, Access Points, Inspection Pits, but now we seem to be coming back to calling them…
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Roller Shutters – Fail
Sorry if you like them……….. but I just don’t get roller shutters! To me they just say someone has got it wrong. You have a house built with nice big windows and then you install shutters. Either the orientation is…
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Charged Drainage System
Thanks to SaveH2O, of Supadiverta This diagram indicates a charged drainage system. These are sometimes called either a “wet” or a “pressure” system. With this type of system a section of the pipe always remains full unlike a Conventional System. As the…
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Conventional Drainage
The vast majority of new houses will have a conventional (sometimes called a Gravity, or Open system) storm water drainage system discharging to either: Public Surface Water Drain – Typically in Eastern States Soakwells on Sandy Sites – Mainly in…
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Can You Build On The Boundary?
I have previously talked about Setbacks but with certain limitations it is possible to build on the boundary.Generally rules about building on a boundary apply to all buildings constructed on or within 150mm of a side boundary. Typical Rules Walls…
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Setbacks
When you are buying a block one of the issues that controls what you can put on a block is the Setbacks of the main structure. Setbacks vary from council to council and can also vary between neighbourhoods in a…
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Types of New House Permits
Here is some information on the several sorts of permits that are involved before you start building a house. Planning Permit Sometimes called a Development Approval (DA) if you are buying a block on an existing subdivision you should already…
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Damp Proof Course (DPC)
The purpose of the outer skin of a building is to keep moisture out of the house structure. A damp proof course, in the brick veneer example shown below, has two purposes: It prevents moisture from the ground rising up…
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